E-Z Pass arrest should have been E-Z

Recently, the State Police proudly announced they had finally collared the state’s most notorious serial toll cheat, limousine driver Sari Ahmet of Bayonne, after he allegedly had zipped through E-Z Pass lanes 2,351 times without paying.

We’re glad the infamous E-Z Glider has been caught — if only because it will help the next governor balance the budget — but it begs the question: What took so long?

Fact check: This guy ran more tolls than Joe DiMaggio had career hits.

Here’s the explanation the state troopers provided: At some point, and they’re not sure what that was, the number of Ahmet’s violations crossed a threshold, and the investigation was handed over to them.

The troopers wanted to catch him in the act, spokesman Stephen Jones said, so they studied the toll violations for a pattern in his driving. (You’ve seen the crime shows. That stuff takes time.) There was no pattern, however, and in the meantime, Ahmet drove his black 2003 Lincoln Town Car through the tolls for a few hundred more freebies.

Of course, investigators already had thousands of photos of his looting limo running tolls. What more did they need? Ahmet, it turns out, stole tolls for three years, State Police said. How did finally they catch him? They called him and left him a message. See, there was a pattern to his driving: Every night he returned home.

Ahmet owes $3,800 in unpaid fines and an additional $70,000 in associated fees. He also owes the Port Authority $4,800. We wonder how much of that money the state actually will be able to collect after allowing Ahmet to run up his tab.

And on top of the what’s-your-hurry enforcement, Turnpike Authority officials say they have no plans to increase the $25 penalty for toll cheats — which makes no sense. A $50 fine probably would be more of a deterrent, and the extra money could help catch toll cheats faster.